On The Verge…

4-05pm

I’ve just come in from a little walk. “Little” because it was both hot and windy, so it was just around the block and 10 minutes in length. Enough to notice what is ‘on the verge’ of some of my neighbours. I have a couple of neighbours who have an amazing lawn on their verge…

Here is another…

And here is the less than perfect van Niekerks…

There is some green there, but generally it needs more water and top dressing and some TLC. In short, it needs work!  As I read the stories of famous, and not so famous people, it is clear that to achieve anything, you need hard work and you can’t give up! You HAVE to keep going.

In the book Holy Sweat by Tim Hansel, (published in 1987 by Word Books Publisher) the following story is told on pages 188-189.
Clarence Jordan was a man of unusual abilities and commitment. He had two Ph.D.s, one in agriculture and one in Greek and Hebrew. So gifted was he, he could have chosen to do anything he wanted. He chose to serve the poor. In the 1940s, he founded a farm in Americus, Georgia, and called it Koinonia Farm. It was a community for poor whites and poor blacks. As you might guess, such an idea did not go over well in the Deep South of the ’40s.

Ironically, much of the resistance came from good church people who followed the laws of segregation as much as the other folk in town. The town people tried everything to stop Clarence. They tried boycotting him, and slashing workers’ tires when they came to town. Over and over, for fourteen years, they tried to stop him.

Finally, in 1954, the Ku Klux Klan had enough of Clarence Jordan, so they decided to get rid of him once and for all. They came one night with guns and torches and set fire to every building on Koinonia Farm but Clarence’s home, which they riddled with bullets. And they chased off all the families except one black family which refused to leave. Clarence recognized the voices of many of the Klansmen, and, as you might guess, some of them were church people. Another was the local newspaper’s reporter. The next day, the reporter came out to see what remained of the farm. The rubble still smoldered and the land was scorched, but he found Clarence in the field, hoeing and planting.

“I heard the awful news,” he called to Clarence, “and I came out to do a story on the tragedy of your farm closing. Clarence just kept on hoeing and planting. The reporter kept prodding, kept poking, trying to get a rise from this quietly determined man who seemed to be planting instead of packing his bags. So, finally, the reporter said in a haughty voice, “Well, Dr. Jordan, you got two of them Ph.D.s and you’ve but fourteen years into this farm, and there’s nothing left of it at all. Just how successful do you think you’ve been?” Clarence stopped hoeing, turned toward the reporter with his penetrating blue eyes, and said quietly but firmly, “About as successful as the cross. Sir, I don’t think you understand us. What we are about is not success but faithfulness. We’re staying. Good day.”

Beginning that day, Clarence and his companions rebuilt Koinonia and the farm is going strong today.

You can visit the website: http://www.koinoniapartners.org

My house verge is not that important for me to invest hours of time on it! But my message to you today is whatever you are on the verge of,  don’t give up. God is not finished with you yet. He is with you and His plans for you are only for good. He doesn’t waste pain. You may be going through a hard time, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, on the verge of financial ruin, on the verge of failure, but He has got your back! He knows what is round the next corner, so hang in there. The best is yet to come!

Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men..”

God bless you!

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂